Pickett
Posted on 01/04/2012 4:35:41 PM PST by BigReb555
Thursday, January 19, 2012, is the 205th birthday of General Robert E. Lee, whose memory is still dear in the hearts of people everywhere.
(Excerpt) Read more at huntingtonnews.net ...
Dear students, teachers, parents, church, community leaders, historians and folks everywhere,
January is the birthday month of War Between the States Generals; James Longstreet born on January 8, 1821, Thomas Jonathan ‘Stonewall’ Jackson born on January 21, 1824, George Pickett born on January 28, 1825 and
Thursday, January 19, 2012, is the 205th birthday of General Robert E. Lee, whose memory is still dear in the hearts of people everywhere.
Many events are planned around the nation that include….
The Georgia Division Sons of Confederate Veterans Robert E. Lee Birthday Celebration in Milledgeville, Georgia on Saturday, January 21, 2012, in the Old Legislative Chambers of the Old State Capitol Building at 11 AM. A Parade will begin at 10:45 AM from the Old Governor’s Mansion to the Old Legislative Chambers.
Did you know that….
During Robert E. Lee’s 100th birthday in 1907, Charles Francis Adams, Jr., a former Union Commander and grandson of US President John Quincy Adams, spoke in tribute to Robert E. Lee at Washington and Lee College’s Lee Chapel in Lexington, Virginia? His speech was printed in both Northern and Southern newspapers and is said to had lifted Lee to a renewed respect among the American people.
Who was Robert E. Lee?
Robert E. Lee, a man whose military tactics have been studied worldwide, was an American soldier, Educator, Christian gentlemen, husband and father.
Robert E. Lee was born on Jan. 19, 1807, at ‘Stratford’ in Westmoreland County, Virginia. The winter was cold and the fireplaces were little help for Robert’s mother, Ann Hill (Carter) Lee, who suffered from a severe cold.
Ann Lee named her son ‘Robert Edward’ after two of her brothers.
Robert E. Lee undoubtedly acquired his love of country from those who lived during the American Revolution. His Father, ‘Light Horse’ Harry was a hero of the revolution and served three terms as governor of Virginia and as a member of the United States House of Representatives. Two members of his family also signed the Declaration of Independence.
Lee was educated at the schools of Alexandria, Va., and he received an appointment to the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1825. He graduated in 1829, second in his class and without a single demerit.
Robert E. Lee’s first assignment was to Cockspur Island, Georgia, to supervise the construction of Fort Pulaski.
While serving as 2nd Lieutenant of Engineers at Fort Monroe, Va., Lee wed Mary Ann Randolph Custis. Robert and Mary had grown up together, Mary was the daughter of George Washington Parke Custis, the Grandson of Martha Washington and adopted son of George Washington.
Mary was an only child; therefore, she inherited Arlington House, across the Potomac River from Washington, D.C., where she and Robert E. Lee raised seven children.
In 1836, Lee was appointed to first Lieutenant. In 1838, with the rank of Captain, Robert E. Lee fought in the War with Mexico and was wounded at the Battle of Chapultepec.
Lee was appointed Superintendent of the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1852.
Gen. Winfield Scott offered Lee command of the Union army to Lee on April 17, 1861, but he refused. He said, ‘I cannot raise my hand against my birthplace, my home, my children.’
The Custis-Lee Mansion ‘Arlington House’ would be occupied by Federals, who would turn the estate into a war cemetery. Today Arlington House is preserved by the National Park Service as a Memorial to Robert E. Lee. http://www.nps.gov/arho/
Lee served as adviser to President Jefferson Davis, and then on June 1, 1862, commanded the legendary Army of Northern Virginia.
After four years of death and destruction, Gen. Robert E. Lee met Gen. Ulysses S. Grant at Appomattox Courthouse in Virginia and ended their battles.
In the fall of 1865, Lee was offered and accepted the presidency of troubled Washington College in Lexington, Virginia. It is today Washington and Lee University.
Lee was called Marse Robert, Uncle Robert and Marble Man.
Robert E. Lee died of a heart attack at 9:30 AM on the morning of October 12, 1870, at Washington College where he is buried at Lee Chapel.
Dr. Edward C. Smith, respected African-American Professor of History at American University in Washington, D.C., told the audience in Atlanta, during a 1995 Robert E. Lee birthday event, ‘Dr. Martin Luther King and Robert E. Lee were individuals worthy of emulation because they understood history.’
On August 5, 1975, 110 years after Gen. Lee's application, President Gerald Ford signed Joint Resolution 23, restoring the long overdue full rights of citizenship to Gen. Robert E. Lee. Read more at: www.ford.utexas.edu/library/speeches/750473.htm
Lest We Forget!
Pickett
Thank you for posting and reminding us all about this.
Down here in St Augustine we’re having our Lees birthday dinner on the day.
Bless R. E. Lee’s soul.
In before the Lee was a traitor crowd shows up to ruin the thread.
Concerning the picture of Lee and his sons, I have stood on those bricks and knocked on that very door. Not bragging, but I think it is pretty neat.
BTT
I think just one of those guys was his son, the other an aide.
You are correct. Photo caption:
This photograph shows Robert E. Lee (seated) shortly after the War. On the left of the picture is his son, General George Washington Custis Lee, and on the right is his chief of staff, Colonel Walter H. Taylor. Lee is in uniform, as are the other two men.
I’m jealous
my oldest is going to DC in a field trip and his teacher is taking the whole grade to his house and Arlington cemetery.
surprised they haven’t been on yet as they’re usually trolling for threads like this 24/7
The picture was taken on a south-facing brick courtyard at the rear of the first floor of a house on Franklin Street in Richmond the Lees were renting during the last year of the war and several month thereafter. The house still stands, as do the bricks and that very door. At one time in the 1980s it was operated as a restaurant by a friend of mine. He named it Traveler’s, after Lee’s horse, who also lived there. The house is now offices.
Lee was spectacular except at Gettysburg. Had he taken the high ground immediately upon arriving history might have changed radically. Even without taking the high ground then they almost pulled it off had it not been for Joshua Chamberlain and the 20th Maine...Pickett’s charge wouldn’t have been necessary...more’s the pity.
Interesting how Longstreet’s and Pickett’s opinions of Lee changed after Gettysburg.....
In case I forget, or am not around anymore....
John Buford’s 186th birthday anniversary is 4 Mar 2012.
now offices, very sad .
Thank you for that info
Lee was good.
Forrest was great.
If someone asked for a short list of greatest Americans, Robert E. Lee would certainly be on it!
Having been military advisor to Confederate president Jefferson Davis, General Robert E. Lee in May assumed of the Army of the Northern Virginia, just as Union troops approached the capital at Richmond.
Reluctantly, the general’s wife, Mary Custis Lee, abandoned her family home at White House Landing, the place where George Washington had once courted Martha Custis, her great grandmother.
Before Leaving, Mary tacked this note to the door.
“Northern soldiers who profess to reverence Washington, forbear to desecrate the home of his first married life, the property of his wife, now owned by her descendents.
-A Grand-daughter of Mrs. Washington”
In deference to Lee - and perhaps to history - Union General McClellan camped on the lawn instead of in the house. But after he moved on the next day, a Federal soldier set fire to the building.
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